by Victoria Miele ’28 on February 26, 2026
News
Further talks about spiraling tensions between the United States and Iran will take place on Thursday, Feb. 26, in Geneva, Switzerland. When discussing Iran’s nuclear program, Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Al Busaidi said on X (formerly known as Twitter) that there is a “positive push to go the extra mile towards finalizing the deal.”
That being said, the U.S. continues to amass military assets in the Middle East, and there are many concerns about a war with Iran.
Since the 20th century, the U.S. and its allies have been concerned with the cultivation of Iran’s nuclear development program. In 1991, during the Persian Gulf war, the U.S. led a coalition of 35 countries to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Iraq is an almost fully landlocked country, and part of the reason it invaded Kuwait was due to its geographical location and access to ports.
Following the war, the U.N. worked hard to prevent Iraq from restarting its weapons of mass destruction programs. During this time, Iran decided to stay neutral in the conflict. However, U.S. officials were concerned that their reason for neutrality was so that they could replace Iraq as the dominant power in the Middle East.
During former President George W. Bush’s 2002 State of the Union address, he described Iran as being part of an “axis of evil” with Iraq and North Korea due to their pursuit of creating WMDs and because they “export terror.” In addition, Bush made sure to mention that the Iranian people were being oppressed by their government. Following this speech, Iranian officials decided to stop meeting with U.S. diplomats who were trying to capture al-Qaeda operatives and combat the Taliban.
Following years of tension, former President Barack Obama called the newly elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani in September of 2013 to discuss Iran’s nuclear program. This was the most direct contact the countries had since 1979. Two months later, Iran, along with the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council and Germany, all signed an initial nuclear agreement which provided Iran with sanctions relief. Both Obama and Rouhani were pleased with the agreement, the former saying the deal cut off Iran’s paths to a bomb and the latter calling it a “political victory” for Iran.
In April of 2019, during President Donald Trump’s first term, Trump designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of the Iranian army, as a foreign terrorist organization. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had previously been vocal about wanting this group to be named as such because tensions between his nation and Iran had also been high as they competed for nuclear dominance over the Middle East.
After multiple conflicts over oil tankers in August 2019, a drone attack on an oil facility, and deployment of U.S. troops to help Saudi Arabia oppose Iran, there were protests at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad. The protestors chanted “Death to America” and demanded that the U.S. withdraw its troops from Iraq.
On Jan. 3, 2020, the U.S. killed Qasem Soleimani, the commander of the IRGC’s elite Quds Force, in a drone strike in Baghdad. Soleimani was known to be one of the most powerful people after Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei in Iran. Besides him, Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and seven other Iranian and Iraqi nationals were killed. As a result, Iran promised it would no longer abide by restrictions under the nuclear deal. Iran later shot down a Ukrainian passenger plane by mistake, thinking it was a U.S. attack, and then attacked multiple U.S. bases in Iraq, wounding dozens of U.S. and Iraqi personnel.
In 2020, Iran launched its first military satellite, which raised many concerns about Iran’s long-range missile capabilities. Later in the year, Iran’s parliament signed a bill to boost the country’s uranium enrichment to 20 percent, which was significantly higher than was permitted under previous deals and threatened to expel International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors if the sanctions on the banking and oil sectors were not lifted within two months. This was decided after the assassination of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, who was a top nuclear scientist in Iran. Iran blamed Israel for the assassination, but also accused the U.S. of playing a part.
In March of 2022, the U.S., along with Bahrain, Egypt, Israel, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates, united under the Negev Forum, which was designed with the framework to deter Iran. The group also met secretly to discuss Iran’s drone and missile capabilities.
In September and October of 2022, women-led protests occurred all over Iran. The protesters denounced Supreme Leader Khamenei and called for an end to the Islamic Republic. In response, the Iranian government suppressed the demonstrators by restricting internet and cellular service, arresting 12,500 people, and killing over 200 protesters. The Biden administration backed the protesters and said nuclear talks were stalled indefinitely due to the protests and Iran’s support of Russia invading Ukraine.
In October 2023, the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group Hamas launched a surprise assault on Israel that killed over 1,300 Israelis. Regional intelligence officials found no immediate evidence that Iran was directly involved with the attack, but some allege that Iran had been providing weapons and training for months prior. Due to the attack, the U.S. and Qatar blocked Iran from accessing the six billion dollars in humanitarian assistance they had previously been giving as a trade for five Iranian-American dual citizens who had been detained in Iran.
When Trump entered office again in 2024, he spoke out against Iran, warning them to stop supporting the Houthis in Yemen, who were openly against Israel. The administration spoke with Iran’s administration regarding Iran’s nuclear program, where Iran continued to claim that their program had peaceful intent.
On June 13, 2025, Israel struck Iran in a surprise attack in an attempt to damage its nuclear facilities. On June 21, Trump issued an overnight attack which hit three of Iran’s atomic centers. Trump called it a “spectacular military success” and a Pentagon spokesperson claimed that the three centers sustained “extremely severe damage.” In response, Iran claimed there would be “everlasting consequences” for the U.S.’s attack.
In January, protests erupted all over Iran as a result of their collapsed currency and the lack of response or action taken by the government. As a result, the government once again issued blackouts on the internet and cell service and there were thousands of deaths and detainments over a two-week period. Trump threatened military action against the Iranian government if the death toll continued to grow. Trump encouraged the protesters to continue, and he issued 25 percent tariffs on any countries doing business with Iran.
The U.S. and Iran are in continuing conversation about the nuclear situation, but the U.S. is considering strikes, and Iran says it is prepared for war.